Track-oiling device.



' D. F. ROBINSON.

TRACK OILING DEVICE. APPLIGA-T101N FILED AUG. 1o, 1am

Patented June 27,1911.

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DAVID F. ROBINSON, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALF TOI. 1V.[. HOLLINGSWORTH, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

TRACK-OILING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 27, 1911.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAvrD F. ROBINSON, a citizen of the United States,residing in the city of Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles,

. State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements inVTrack-Oiling Devices, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an automatic oiling device for oiling the curvesof railroad tracks, and is an improvement on the device patented byA meDecember 28th, 1909, by Patent No. 944,464, and the object thereof is toprovide an automatic oiling device carried by the car, which willautomatically and more effectually oil the curves as the car passesaround the same than my former,

device.

A further object is to provide cleaning means for removing the dirt fromthe gutter between the guard rail and track rail in advance of theoiling device.

I accomplish this object by the mechanism described herein andillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a front elevation of a part of a street car equipped with myimproved devices. Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the parts ofthe oiling device shown at the right in Fig. 1, taken on a line near theparts under the car and looking outwardly. Fig. 3 is a section on theline 3 3 of Fig. 2, with parts removed for clearness of illustration.Fig. 4 is a central 'section of the swab wheel, the axle thereof beingpartly broken away. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the swab wheel lookingoutwardly from the car.

In the drawings 10 is a bracket which is secured upon the bottom of thecar 11.` On this bracket are pivotally mounted the swab actuating arms12 and 13. These arms preferably consist of bars of metal the outer endsof which are bifurcated which extend from the pivotal point outwardlyabout twelve inches beyond the car wheels 14 and 15 when the car is on astraight track. In Fig. 1 I have shown only the two front wheels of thecar as the same appear when passing around the curve, with the mainmountings of the car and other portions omitted for clearness ofillustration. These swab actuating arms preferably consist of a bar ofmetal which extends through a yoke 16 secured upon thev top of the guidesheath 17 when the car is on a straight portion of the track asillustrated in Fig. 2. The outer ends of these bars are preferablybifurcated and the outer ends are held from spreading by a bolt 18. Theyare held in their eX- panded position by spring 19 which is coiledaround bolt 18. Guide sheath 17 is rigidly secured to cross bar 20 whichforms a part of the truck frame. In the sides of sheath 17 are slots 21through which projects pipe 22, the outer end of which is closed by acap 23 and the inner end of which is connected by hose 24 to reservoir25. Within sheath 17 and longitudinally movable therethrough is thesquare pipe 26 which is closed at the top and is provided with bearings27 in which a roller 2S is mounted. A roller 29 isV mounted in yoke 16and the swab actuating arms pass between rollers 28 and 29. Pipe 22passes through pipe 26 in liquid tight contact, and within pipe 26 pipe22- is provided with a port 30 preferably in its lower side as bestshown in Fig. 3. The lower end of pipe 26 is also closed and a roundhollow pipe 31 passes through the lower end of pipe 26 and may besecured thereto by nuts 32 and 33, or in any other suitable manner. Onthis pipe is revolubly mounted a swab wheel 34 which has a saucer shapeddepression 35 in the iianged side of the wheel as best shown in Fig. 4.This saucer shaped depression is covered by the circular swab disk 36which is of any suitable material, such as cloth or carpet. Swab 36 isheld in place upon the swab wheel by a washer 37 and bolts 38 of whichthere may be any desired number. In Fig. 5 I have shown holes 332L inthe wheel for three of these bolts as in practice I have found thatnumber suliicient for the purpose. The edge of the washer is adjusted bymeans of these bolts to give the desired pressure upon the swab disk soas to permit the lubricant to flow out through the swab disk when oilingthe curves as hereinafter explained.

The outer end of pipe 31 is closed and within the swab wheel said pipeis provided with a port 39 which permits of theescape of oil intodepression 35. Between nut 32 and washer 37 a spring 40 is coiled aroundpipe 31, and between the swab wheel and nut 41 on the outer end of pipe31 is a coiled t-he outer end of the handle 52.

spring 42 which is also mounted upon pipe 31. By means of springs 40 and42 the swab wheel is normally held in a central position upon pipe 31.These springs allow the swab wheel to move longitudinally on pipe 3l sothat the swab wheel automatically adjusts itself on curves of dierentradii. Pipe 31 is provided with a port 43 in that portion of the samewhich passes through pipe 26 so that the lubricant passes down throughpipe 26 into pipe 31 through port 43 and out of pipe 31 into depression35 through port 39, thereby coming into contact with the inner side ofthe swab disk, through which it flows and is spread upon the surface ofthe guard rail 44 when the curve is being oiled, as shown in Fig. 1. Alever 45 is pivoted in an arm 47 as best shown in Fig. 2. One end ofthis lever is bifurcated and the furcations straddle sheath 17immediately below pipe 22. To the other end of the lever is secured aspring 48 which normally holds pipe 22 in its elevated position as shownin Fig. 2 and on the right in Fig. 1. The lower end of this spring isfastened to bearing 49 which bearing, as well as arm 47, is secured tocross bar 20. A pipe 50 leads out of the lower central portion ofreservoir 25 and branches just below the cross bar and passes under saidcross bar and thence downwardly to a point adjacent to the swab wheelwhere it is provided with a cutoff cock 51 having a handle 52 by meansof which its plug is operated to open and close the cock as hereaftereX- plained.

Upon the lower end of each of the branches are pieces of hose 53 whichhave their lower ends open and lying in Contact with the swab disk onits outer side. Pipe 50 and its branches lead lubricating fluid fromreservoir 25 and deliver it upon the outside of the swab disk ashereafter eX plained. On the outer end of pipe 31 is secured a cap 54 towhich is secured a link bar 55 by means of a pin 56 which pivotallyconnects said link bar to said cap. The other end of link bar 55 ispivotally connected to IVhen the swab wheel is in its elevated positionwhich is its normal position when the car is on the straight portion ofthe track, cutoff cock 51 is normally closed, but when the swab wheel isdepressed as shown at the left in Fig. 1, and in dotted lines in Fig. 2cutoff cock 51 is opened so as to permit lubricating fluid to flow tothat swab wheel that is depressed. The depressing of the swab wheel alsocarries hose 24 downwardly at its outer end a suflicient distance topermit the lubricating fluid 57 in the reservoir to flow through thehose and into and down pipe 26 through pipe 31 and into the depression35 in the side of the. swab wheel, whereby lubricating fluid is appliedboth internally and eX- ternally the swab whenever the wheel isdepressed. In order to apply a very small quantity of lubricating fluidto the inner edge of the track rail 58, I provide one or more ports 59which extend through the flange 34a as shown in Fig. 4. These ports `arefilled with fibrous material 6() such as candle wicking or like materialso that aV very small quantity of the lubricating fluid can be carriedtherethrough and applied to the track rail.

When the car is on the straight portion of the track the non-bifurcatedportion of the swab actuating arms 12 and 13 as shown in Fig. 2 will liebetween rollers 28 and 29 and the swab wheel will be in its elevatedposition with cutoff cock 51 closed. Now as the car travels around thecurve the front end of the car projects to the outside of the track asit travels around the curve. This carries the swab actuating arms to theposiltion shown in Fig. 1 with the bifurcated end of the inner arm drawnbetween rollers 28 and 29, thereby forcing pipe 26 downwardly againstthe tension of spring 48, thereby bringing the swab wheel upon the rail.Then the swab wheel is brought upon the rail the swab disk is broughtinto contact with the guard rail and distributes a graduated quantity ofoil thereon so that when the flange of the wheel 15 contacts with theguard rail it moves thereon without the screeching sound produced by theange of a wheel passing around an unoiled curve.

In order to remove dirt which accumulates in the groove between theguard rail and the track rail, I have provided a dirt plow 61, the pointof which is adapted to pass into groove 62 between the track rail andthe guard rail to the depth that the swab wheel travels so as to removethe dirt to that eX- tent from the groove. This plow is mounted uponpipe lbetween pipe 26 and nut 33, which last nut locks the plow againstturning upon said pipe. The plow may be secured against turning uponsaid pipe in any other desired manner. I prefer to plug the outer endsof pipe 31 so as to make them solid except in that portion leading fromport 48 to port 39.

As the reservoir and connecting mechanism are carried by the car truckand the swab operating arms are carried by the car body, the movement ofthe car body is utilized through the swab operating arms to force theswab wheel upon the track rail as the car passes around the curve,thereby bringing the swab disk into engagement with the guard rail,thereby oiling the same and preventing noise and reducing the frictionbetween the car wheel and the guard rail.

It .will be observed that the connection between the reservoir andtheinterior of the swab wheel is so arranged and proportioned that whenthe swab wheel is carried in vits normal elevated position, thelubricating fluid will not flow out of the reservoir. When the swabwheel is depressed, the lubricating fluid can flow down into theinterior of the swab wheel, and also upon its exterior surface. It willalso be observed that when the swab wheel is in its elevated positionthere is nothing to cause it to rotate, and that therefore there is nopressure to force the oil out of the swab disk, but when the swab diskis pressed against the guard rail and the swab wheel is revolved by itscontact with the track rail, a pressure is exerted on the swab disk tosqueeze the oil out of the same. The swab wheel is located as close toand in front of the advance wheel of the truck in the direction it istraveling as is permissible with the aforesaid movements of the swabwheel. By having reservoirs at each end of the car and swab wheels foreach rail of the track at each end of the car, an efficient andeconomical device is provided for properly lubricating the curve of thetrack, no matter in which direction the car is traveling. It will beunderstood that the openings through pipe 26 and through pipe 50 arearranged to supply whatever amount ofoil is required to oil the curve,the size of the openings depending upon the liuidity of the oil, and theamount required for the purpose. It will also be observed that the dirtplow moves with the swab wheel and cleans out the groove just in advanceof the swab. This plow is preferably made of spring metal so that incase any hard material gets wedged in the groove it will spring overtheA same instead of bending or breaking.

Having described my inventionwhat I claim is l. A device forautomatically oiling the curves of a railroad track, comprising a car;an oil reservoir secured upon the car truck; a guide sheath secured tosaid truck; an oil pipe longitudinally movable in said sheath; aconnection from the upper end of said pipe to said reservoir, soarranged that when the pipe is in its elevated position the oil will notrun from the reservoir into the pipe,but when the pipe is depressed,theoil will flow from the reservoir into the pipe; a flanged swab wheelhaving a de p-ression in the flanged side thereof, a swab disk coveringsaid depression; a washer exterior said swab disk and having regulatingmeans for applying pressure to said swab disk; an axle forming amounting for said wheel on said pipe, said mounting having a channelconnecting the depression of the wheel with the interior of the pipe;means for carrying said swab wheel normally elevated above the track;and means carried by thecar body for depressing said swab wheel when thecar is roundin a curve.

2. A device for automatical y oiling the curves of a railroad trackcomprising a car;

an oil reservoir secured upon the truck of the car; a vertical guidesheath secured to said truck; an oil pipe longitudinally movable in saidsheath; a connection from the upper end of said pipe to said reservoirso arranged that when the pipe is in its elevated position, the oil willnot run from the reservoir into the pipe, but when the pipe is depressedthe oil will flow from the reservoir into the pipe; a transverse pipesecured to the bottom of said oil pipe, the interiors of said pipesbeing in communication; a flanged swab wheelhaving a depression in theflanged side thereof revolubly mounted on said transverse pipe, saiddepression being in communication with the interior of said transversepipe; a swab disk covering said depression; means for holding said swabdisk upon said wheel, said means being adapted to put a regulatablepressure upon the disk; resilient means for carrying said swab wheelnormally elevated above the track; and means carried by the car body fordepressing said vertical pipe when the car is rounding a curve.v

3. A device for automatically oiling they curves of a railroad trackcomprising a car; an oil reservoir secured upon the truck of the car; avertical guide sheath secured to said truck; an oil pipe longitudinallymovable in said sheath; a connection from the upper end of said pipe tosaid reservoir so arranged that when the pipe is in its elevatedposition, the oil will not run from the reservoir into the pipe, butwhen the pipe is depressed the oil will flow from the reservoir into thepipe; a transverse pipe secured to the bottom of said oil pipe, theinteriors of said pipes being in communication; a flanged swab wheelhaving a depression in the flanged side thereof revolubly mounted onsaid transverse pipe, said depression being in communication with theinterior of said transverse pipe; a swab disk covering said depression;means for holding said swab disk upon said wheel, said means beingadapted to put a regulatable pressure upon the disk; coiled springssurrounding the pipe on which said swab wheel is mounted, one on eachside thereof; a dirt plow mounted on the pipe carrying the swab wheel;resilient means for carrying said swab wheel normally elevated above thetrack; and means carried by the car body for depressing said oil pipewhen the car is rounding a curve.

4. A device for automatically oiling the curves of a railroad trackcomprising a car; an oil reservoir secured upon the car truck; a springretracted flanged swab wheel mounted on the truck to move vertically andnormally carried above the track rails; means operated by the movementof the car body when rounding a curve to force the swab Wheel: down uponthe track rail; and have hereunto subscbed my name this 22nd alconnection from the reservoir to the swab day of July, 1910.

Wheel so arranged that When the swab Wheel is brought into engagementWith th track DAVID F' ROBINSON' rail, oil Will HOW from the reservoirt0 the Witnesses:

swabvf Wheell G. E. HARPHAM, In Witness that IE claim the fregoing I S.B. AUSTIN.V

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each;- byy addressingthe' Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D; C.

